Former Nigeria captain Austin Jay-Jay Okocha has said Nigeria could have won at least one more Africa Cup of Nations title in the 1990s if political decisions had not stopped the team from competing.
Okocha made the remarks during a recent appearance on The One Podcast, backed by BetWinner, where he discussed his international career.
Reflecting on the missed tournaments, he said: “The government stopped us from playing AFCON in 1996 because of our issues with South Africa, and they were the hosts. FIFA punished us and didn’t allow us to play in 1998 either. We were the best team then, we could have won at least one of them easily.”
Nigeria qualified as defending champions for the 1996 AFCON in South Africa but withdrew on the orders of the then military government led by Sani Abacha. The withdrawal followed a diplomatic rift between Abacha and South African President Nelson Mandela.